FSU Energy articles from July 2003

FSU Energy archives from July 2003

Yukos man stays in custody; Platon Lebedev remains in prison. And there is no sign of an end to the campaign against Yukos.(shareholder scandal)
July 25, 2003... The Yukos scandal stubbornly refused to go away this week, fuelling uncertainty about Russia's investment climate. Moscow city court ruled on 23 July that Yukos' number two shareholder, Platon Lebedev, should remain in the city's...

The Wizard of Oz: the Yukos affair is raising questions about who really controls Russia. And the answers look ugly. (Editorial).
July 25, 2003... "Who is Vladimir Putin?" That was the question on everyone's lips when he first emerged from relative obscurity to become Russia's prime minister and then president back in 1999-2000. And now the Yukos affair has brought the issue to the fore...

US gets into Russian LNG. (News).(Russian liquefied natural gas exports; United States)
July 25, 2003... The US ambassador to Russia, Alexander Vershbow, has highlighted the potential for Russian liquefied natural gas (LNG) exports to his country. Vershbow pointed to Sakhalin gas fields as a potential LNG source, reflecting growing US...

Ministry escalates Salym attack. (News).(Salym Petroleum Development, Siberia oil field)
July 25, 2003... Russia has ordered the Shell-led Salym Petroleum Development (SPD) joint venture to stop work at the Upper Salym field in the Khanty-Mansiysk autonomous district of western Siberia. The news has prompted fresh concerns about the country's...

Audit chamber threatens Sevmorneftegaz licences. (News).(gas and oil fields, Russia)
July 25, 2003... Russia's audit chamber is calling for the withdrawal of licences for the 4.3 trillion [m.sup.3] Shtokman gas field and the 2.78bn bl Prirazlomnoye oil field, both held by Rosneft-Gazprom joint venture Sevmorneftegaz. This follows an...

Bashneft sale comes under fire. (News).(oil firm, Russia; investigation)
July 25, 2003... The audit chamber has also accused the government of the autonomous republic of Bashkortostan of illegally selling local oil firm Bashneft. The chamber warns that the results of a recent investigation will be submitted to Russian...

Primorsk to boost exports in August. (Exports and trade).(oil terminal, Russia; 2003)
July 25, 2003... Russia's seaborne exports to northwest Europe are set to rise next month, thanks to increased loadings at Russia's Primorsk terminal. Primorsk is scheduled to handle a record 353,000 b/d of crude oil following the expansion of the Baltic...

Odessa-Brody transit deal delayed. (News: exports and trade).(oil pipeline; Russia, Ukraine)
July 25, 2003... Russia has refused to sign a 15-year crude transit deal with Ukraine after Kiev delayed a decision on whether to reverse its 180,000 b/d Odessa-Brody pipeline for exports of Russian crude. Russian premier Mikhail Kasyanov said after meeting...

Kazakhs play it cool. (News: exports and trade).(Kazmunaigaz, planned oil supplies for pipeline; Russia-Ukraine-Kazakhstan)(Brief Article)
July 25, 2003... Ukrtransnafta chairman Oleksander Todiychuk has claimed that both Kazakh state-owned Kazmunaigaz and an unnamed trader dealing with Turkmen oil are interested in supplying Caspian crude for the Odessa-Brody pipeline. Ukrainian energy minister...

TNK-BP plans Ventspils upgrade. (News: exports and trade).(Tyumen Oil, British Petroleum; oil joint venture, Russia, Latvia)(Brief Article)
July 25, 2003... Managers from the TNK-BP joint venture, due to be formally launched next month, are holding talks with Latvia's Ventspils Nafta (VN) oil terminal on financing construction of a modern rail rack to handle crude. Tyumen Oil (TNK) is a...

Turkey gets tough on gas negotiations. (News).
July 25, 2003... Moscow and Ankara are getting ready for a fresh round of talks about Turkey's request for concessions in its three purchase agreements for Russian gas. Discussions collapsed last week with Gazprom unwilling to meet Turkish demands for...

Iran rejects Caspian proposal. (News).(Brief Article)
July 25, 2003... Iran has rejected a proposal from Moscow that it join forces with a Russian group to develop oil blocks on the border between the Iranian and Turkmen sectors of the Caspian Sea. Russia's Caspian envoy, Viktor Kalyuzhny, said last week...

TAP pipeline looks south. (News).(Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan, gas pipeline project )
July 25, 2003... The governments behind the proposed $2.5bn Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan (TAP) gas pipeline project have put on hold bidding for the contract to build and operate the line. They cite the need for further studies of the preferred...

Rosneft approves Lukoil asset swap. (Russia & CIS).(Brief Article)
July 25, 2003... Rosneft's board has approved an agreement with Lukoil providing for asset swaps between the two firms. Under the agreement, Rosneft will sell a 25pc stake in producer Arkhangelskgeoldobycha (AGD) to Lukoil, acquiring in exchange a 13.6pc...

Kuchma confirms Kremenchug sell-off. (Russia & CIS).(Brief Article)
July 25, 2003... Ukraine's President Leonid Kuchma confirmed this week that the 43.05pc state-owned stake in Ukrtatnafta--operator of the country's largest refinery, the 360,000 b/d Kremenchug plant--will be auctioned off by the end of the year. Earlier this...

JKX share issue goes ahead. (Russia & CIS).(Brief Article)
July 25, 2003... UK-registered JKX has successfully issued an additional 6.7mn shares in a bid to raise capital for the upgrade of gas-processing facilities at its majority-owned Ukrainian production asset, Poltava Petroleum (PPC). The firm says the money...

Israel to shut refinery for 40 days. (Russia & CIS).(Brief Article)
July 25, 2003... Israeli state-owned refiner ORL is to shut its 84,000 b/d Ashdod refinery--which runs almost exclusively on Russian Urals crude--for 40 days from 8 August. As well as a scheduled general overhaul, the refinery's 28,000 b/d fluid catalytic...

Looking ahead.(Calendar)
July 25, 2003... * KIOGE. 7-10 October. Almaty, Kazakhstan. Tel: (44 20) 7596 5081 * Oil and Gas Transportation in the CIS & Caspian Region. 21-22 October. Vienna. Energy Exchange. Tel: (44 1242) 529 090 * Oil and Gas Transit and Supply in Central and...

Petrokazakhstan Iran cargoes delayed. (Caspian/central Asia).(Brief Article)
July 25, 2003... Canadian firm Petrokazakhstan--formerly Hurricane Hydrocarbons--has suffered a setback in its plans to start up a 1mn t/yr (20,800 b/d) swap deal with Iran for its production of light sweet Kumkol crude. The firm's vice-president for...

McDermott to lay Shakh-Deniz pipes. (Caspian/central Asia).
July 25, 2003... US services company McDermott has won a contract to construct three underwater pipelines from the Shakh-Deniz gas-condensate field in Azerbaijan to the onshore Sangachal terminal. The $90mn construction project will require installation of...

Rosneft finds oil in Kazakhstan. (Caspian/central Asia).(Brief Article)
July 25, 2003... Rosneft has reported crude flows of 51 b/d (7 t/d) and 803 b/d at two wells in the Adai onshore exploration block in western Kazakhstan. The Russian state-owned company owns a 50pc share of the Adai Petroleum joint venture developing the...

Azerbaijan decreases product output. (Caspian/central Asia).
July 25, 2003... The Azneftyag and Azneftyanadzhag refineries in Baku produced 380,000t of products last month. Refinery operator Socar says output was down on May and on June last year, because of a rise in crude exports through the Black Sea port of...

ConocoPhillips buys Czech refiner.
July 25, 2003... US firm ConocoPhillips has taken over purchases of seaborne crude for the Czech Refining Company (CRC). ConocoPhillips, which was not already involved in trading Russian and Caspian grades, will do the buying out of its London office. CRC...

Yukos settlement hopes fade. (Stock markets).
July 25, 2003... The Yukos affair continued to dominate the market, undermining share prices across the board and exacerbating fears about Russia's wider stability. Early hopes that it might be blowing over were firmly dashed on 23 July by the news that...

Petrom privatisation: taking stock. (Romania).
July 25, 2003... The Romanian government is once again trying to sell state-owned Petrom, hoping to find a buyer by the end of the year. Petrom is a vertically integrated oil company, but one that is grossly overmanned and underproductive. It has only...

Upstream and downstream. (Romania).(Brief Article)
July 25, 2003... Petrom accounts for half of Romania's retail fuel sales--44.9pc of gasoline, 45.3pc of diesel and 52.6pc of liquefied petroleum gas. But its position has weakened considerably over the past five years in the face of competition from both...

Prices fall with crude. (Products market).
July 25, 2003... * Product prices fell, reacting to weaker crude futures. Gasoil demand in northwest Europe has dried up but the Mediterranean is proving more profitable for sellers from the Black Sea. High-sulphur fuel oil is being drawn to Asia, tightening...

Iraqi export hike hits Urals. (Crude market).
July 25, 2003... * Crude prices lost around $1/bl over the week on news of the death of Saddam Hussein's sons and a hike in exports of Iraqi crude. Urals eased against benchmark dated BFO on the Iraqi export boost. * Urals fell furthest from its recent...

FSU crude offtakers.(Illustration)
July 25, 2003... Crude export offtakers, June 2003 Volume Producers Offtakers ('000t) Novorossiysk Lukoil Lukoil...

Netbacks.(Illustration)
July 25, 2003... [GRAPHICS OMITTED] Russian crude netbacks 23 Jul Primorsk Butinge Novorossiysk Urals (cif-fit) ($/bl) 26.59 26.59 26.74...

Yukos plot thickens: the Yukos affair--a messy collision of big business and politics--took several new twists this week.
July 18, 2003... The stakes were raised in the campaign against Yukos and its shareholders this week, with the oil firm's release of a statement from "members of the Russian public" describing recent moves as an attack on "the core of real democracy". ...

Presiding uncertainty: contrary to expectations, the Yukos affair has not gone away. And it is starting to damage Russia's image. (Editorial).(Editorial)
July 18, 2003... The portrayal by Yukos of the current offensive against it as an attack on democracy (see p1) is an arresting tactic. It is a dramatic move and one that it would be easy to dismiss as an attempt to elevate a grubby battle between rival...

Investors maintain watching brief. (News).(Industry Overview)
July 18, 2003... Foreign investors in Russia's oil sector have warned that the Yukos affair (see p1) could undermine confidence in the country's stability. And they are calling on President Vladimir Putin to say where he stands on the issue. "This is not...

Sakhalin I diversifies gas goals. (News).
July 18, 2003... The ExxonMobil-led Sakhalin I consortium is rethinking its gas sales strategy, after losing ground to the rival Sakhalin Energy group in the Japanese market. The Sakhalin I group, which hopes to start gas exports in 2008, now points to...

BTC partners question stop-gap financing. (BTC pipeline).(Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan Co.)
July 18, 2003... Several shareholders in the BP-led Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan (BTC) pipeline consortium have questioned proposed new conditions for funding the $2.95bn project at the latest meeting of BTC's board of directors in Tbilisi last week. The...

Kazakhstan keeps BTC in sight. (BTC pipeline).(Industry Overview)
July 18, 2003... Kazakh energy minister Vladimir Shkolnik last week confirmed his country's interest in the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan (BTC) pipeline as an export route. A sub-Caspian pipeline could carry Kazakh oil into BTC by 2009, he says. The route is...

Poland scraps Gdansk sale. (News).
July 18, 2003... Polish finance minister Piotr Czyzewski has scrapped the sale of a 75pc state stake in the 90,000 b/d Gdansk refinery. Poland's largest refiner, PKN Orlen, and UK firm Rotch Energy had been bidding jointly for the stake, in a sale process...

Mol is preferred bidder for Ina. (News).(Mol Rt)(Brief Article)
July 18, 2003... Croatian prime minister Ivica Racan has named Hungary's Mol as the preferred bidder for a 25pc plus one share state stake in oil and gas firm Ina. This follows Mol's bid of $505mn for the Ina stake, which outstripped the $420mn bid of...

Japan keeps Nakhodka flame burning. (News).(Brief Article)
July 18, 2003... Japan and Russia are continuing to discuss proposals for a 1mn b/d pipeline from Angarsk in eastern Siberia to Russia's Pacific port of Nakhodka, keeping alive Tokyo's hopes that a rival pipeline to China will be shelved. A Japanese team led...

Sibneft continues Kuwait talks. (News).(Brief Article)
July 18, 2003... Talks between Sibneft and Kuwait's state-owned KOC about the country's first upstream opening to foreign oil firms are continuing. "Project Kuwait" involves operating and expanding the Raudhatain, Sabriya, Ratga and Abdali oil fields. But the...

Demand for fuel oil boosts Urals. (Exports and trade).(Industry Overview)
July 18, 2003... The discount for medium sour Urals crude has dramatically narrowed against competing light, low-sulphur grades. Urals has gained over $1/bl against North Sea benchmark dated BFO since late June in both the Mediterranean and northwest...

Fuel oil exports drop as crude shipments rise. (Exports and trade).(Industry Overview)
July 18, 2003... Efforts to boost crude exports and cash in on high prices are leading to reduced product exports and lower throughputs at key Russian refineries. Rapidly rising production and a Urals price of over $26/bl in Rotterdam since the start of...

TNK-BP export future takes shape. (Exports and trade).(Company Profile)
July 18, 2003... BP, Tyumen Oil (TNK) and Sidanco are finalising integration plans ahead of the creation of the TNK-BP joint venture, which is expected to come into formal existence on 1 August. Initial integration is expected to take around 100 days,...

Russian companies want higher prices in CIS. (Exports and trade).(Industry Overview)
July 18, 2003... Russian oil firms are trying to get higher prices for crude supplies in Ukraine, Belarus and Kazakhstan where prices are well below those on world markets. Recent increases in domestic Russian prices have supported their case. Prices for...

Severtek to start Komi production. (Russia & CIS).(Brief Article)
July 18, 2003... Severtek, a 50:50 joint venture between Lukoil and Finland's Fortum, plans to start production at the Yuzhno-Shapkinskoye oil field in the Komi republic in Russia's far north. Severtek has been developing the field since 2000, but output has...

Russia eases LPG controls. (Russia & CIS).(Industry Overview)
July 18, 2003... Russia is pressing ahead with plans to fully liberalise domestic liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) prices--but deadlines have been kept vague. The government says reform is vital if Russia is to avoid a severe shortage in household gas supplies....

Karachaganak exports start. (Caspian/central Asia).(Kazakhstan, natural gas exports)(Brief Article)
July 18, 2003... Kazakhstan's Karachaganak gas and condensate field has started exports to western markets. Condensate will be exported through the Caspian Pipeline Consortium (CPC) link to Novorossiysk in Russia. The UK's BG, joint operator of the field with...

Crude exports approach 5mn b/d.(Illustration)
July 18, 2003... FSU crude exports hit another record in June, nearing 5mn b/d. The 5pc increase from May's record was partly accounted for by the start-up of the summer production season off Sakhalin island in Russia's far east, and a hike in exports using...

Kazakhstan boosts crude exports. (Caspian/central Asia).(Brief Article)(Illustration)
July 18, 2003... Kazakhstan exported 758,000 b/d (2.37nm t) of crude in June, up from 745,000 b/d in May (see table). Of this, 577,000 b/d was moved by pipeline, up from 543,000 b/d in May. The increase is ascribed to the start-up of new pipelines....

Azeri loadings steady. (Caspian/central Asia).(Azerbajian fuel oil loadings)(Brief Article)
July 18, 2003... Four cargoes of Azeri Light will load at the Georgian Black Sea port of Supsa in August, the same as for most months over the last year (see table). Azeri Light's high yield of low-sulphur fuel oil, the product currently most in demand in the...

Azeri crude exports up by 11pc. (Caspian/central Asia).(Azerbaijan)(Brief Article)(Illustration)
July 18, 2003... Azerbaijan exported 206,000 b/d (845,700t) of crude in June, compared with 179,000 b/d in May (see table). Shipments of Azeri crude from Novorossiysk reached 305,700t against 220,000t in May. The BP-led AIOC consortium exported about 540,000t...

Kazakh product output falls. (Caspian/central Asia).(petroleum products)(Brief Article)
July 18, 2003... Product output in Kazakhstan fell last month as a result of refinery maintenance (see table). The country's three refineries produced 518,700t of products in June, compared with 625,000t in May. The 162,000 b/d Pavlodar refinery was shut for...

Azerbaijan June product exports rise. (Caspian/central Asia).(petroleum products)(Illustration)
July 18, 2003... Product exports from Azerbaijan rose by 6,400t in June compared with May, to 138,400t, according to Azeri state-owned oil firm Socar. Fuel oil and kerosine accounted for most of the rise. Socar's marketing operations department shipped...

Yukos affair weakens sentiment. (Stock markets).(oil firm, Russia; securities)
July 18, 2003... The S&P 500 and the Dow Jones both retreated slightly, despite indications the US Federal Reserve is planning to keep interest rates low to stimulate business. The benchmark Russian Trading System (RTS) again moved out of phase with the rest...

Gazprom fails to sparkle. (Companies).(profits up, sales down)
July 18, 2003... Gazprom's 2002 full-year results suggest the company has done little to bring costs under control, and that profits are suffering accordingly. On the surface things look rosy, with profits of $861mn up sharply on the previous year,...

Concerns for Sibneft minorities persist. (Companies).(corporate charter, amendment plans; minority shareholders, planned merger with Yukos)
July 18, 2003... Sibneft has announced plans to amend its corporate charter, to allow Yukos to waive its obligation to buy out minority shareholders when the companies merge later this year. At an extraordinary general meeting on 18 August, Sibneft...

Fuel oil remains tight. (Products market).(supplies, European prices; statistics, freight rates)
July 18, 2003... * Fuel oil supply remains very tight, leaving bunker demand uncovered. But recent disruption in gasoil supply from the Baltic appears to have been resolved. * The gasoil export pipeline at Ventspils resumed operations on 14 July after...

Urals strengthens further. (Crude market).(oil prices, statistics; World)
July 18, 2003... * Crude prices edged up as Hurricane Claudette hit the US Gulf coast and Urals gained against dated BFO. July cargoes were all but sold out well ahead of the release of August loading programmes. * Strong demand for fuel oil in Europe has...

Russian refinery output, May 2003.(Illustration)
July 18, 2003... Russian refinery output, May 2003 '000t Crude Crude throughput throughput May % chg Company/refinery May ...

Netbacks.(Russian crude)(Illustration)
July 18, 2003... Russian crude netbacks Primorsk Butinge Novo- rossiysk Urals (cif-fit) ($/bl) 27.90 27.90 27.65 Urals...

Murmansk line moves ahead: leading oil firms appear to have found common ground with Transneft over the proposed new export route.
July 11, 2003... Russia's oil giants have taken a step towards realisation of the Murmansk pipeline, signing a breakthrough memorandum of understanding with pipeline operator Transneft on proposals for the link. And capacity of the line could now end up...

What lies beneath: recent events suggest Russia's much-vaunted new stability may be little more than skin deep. (Editorial).(Mikhail Khodorkovsky of Yukos Oil Co. facing power struggle)
July 11, 2003... Until last week, Yukos head Mikhail Khodorkovsky appeared to be going from strength to strength. Now, it seems, he is being cut down to size. It started with the arrest last week of Platon Lebedev--number three in the Yukos empire and...

Kasyanov promises Gazprom decision in autumn. (News).
July 11, 2003... The Russian government has made another attempt to push forward reform of Gazprom, despite continuing opposition from the gas giant and its allies in the Kremlin. Russian prime minister Mikhail Kasyanov said last week that the government...

Ministry menaces Salym licence again. (News).
July 11, 2003... The natural resources ministry is again threatening to withdraw licences held by Shell's Salym Petroleum Development (SPD) joint venture, which operates the 650mn bl Salym group of fields in western Siberia. The ministry has sent a...

Lukoil signs swap deal with Iran. (News: Caspian).(with Naftiran Intertrade Co.)
July 11, 2003... Lukoil has signed a crude swap deal with Iranian state-owned trading company Naftiran Intertrade (Nico). The Russian firm will deliver 20,000 b/d of Siberian Light to Iran's Caspian port of Neka in exchange for equivalent volumes of...

Petrokazakhstan awaits Iranian shipments. (News: Caspian).(Brief Article)
July 11, 2003... Tehran will allow Canada's Petrokazakhstan--formerly Hurricane Hydrocarbons--to freely market the Iranian Light it will receive at Kharg island in return for Kumkol delivered by rail to Iran's Tehran refinery. Deliveries are set to begin...

Kazakhstan announces tender terms. (News: Caspian).(Brief Article)
July 11, 2003... Kazakhstan has revealed details of a new tender to sell Caspian blocks. Energy minister Vladimir Shkolnik says 23 structures will be put up for tender initially. The tender will be announced next year or in 2005. Eventually, a total of...

New record takes Transneft to limit. (Exports and trade).(Industry Overview)
July 11, 2003... Crude exports through the Transneft pipeline system hit another record last month, reaching 3.51mn b/d (see pp14-15)--up by 140,000 b/d on May and by 24pc on the same month last year. Russian firms accounted for the increase, while...

Duty reduction encourages exporters. (Exports and trade).
July 11, 2003... FSU product exports hit 7.62mn t in June, up from 7.48mn t in May and 4pc higher than the same month last year, thanks partly to a cut in product export duty. Fuel oil exports from St Petersburg more than tripled against May volumes, to...

Crude rally belies limited opportunities. (Domestic market).(Industry Overview)
July 11, 2003... Russian domestic crude oil prices have surged dramatically over recent weeks in their traditional summer rally. But this is cold comfort for those firms that actually have to sell their crude on the domestic market. The weighted average...

Vitol scoops up Urals. (Exports and trade).
July 11, 2003... Trader Vitol has caused a stir in the market this month by acquiring Urals cargoes far in excess of its obvious outlets for the grade. Since June, Vitol has been marketing the bulk of Kazakh cargoes at Odessa, giving it around 120,000...

Yukos signs 10-year deal with Mol. (Exports and trade).(Yukos Oil Co. and Mol Rt)
July 11, 2003... Yukos has signed a 10-year deal with Hungary's Mol for direct supply of 144,000 b/d of crude oil to Hungary and Slovakia, where Mol controls refiner Slovnaft. The deal replaces an existing agreement for direct supplies of 48,000 b/d....

BPS expands. (Russia & CIS).(Transneft boosts capacity of Baltic Pipeline System)(Brief Article)
July 11, 2003... Transneft has boosted capacity of the Baltic Pipeline System (BPS) to the Primorsk terminal to 360,000 b/d from 240,000 b/d. The expansion is part of a wider project--BPS-2--aiming to raise capacity to 840,000 b/d. This is due for completion...

Gutseriyev heads small producers. (Russia & CIS).(Mikhail Gutseriyev to head AssoNeft)(Brief Article)
July 11, 2003... Former Slavneft boss Mikhail Gutseriyev has been elected head of AssoNeft, uniting over 50 small independent firms. He replaces Vladimir Solomin, a departmental head at the energy ministry. Gutseriyev has already announced plans to initiate a...

Rosneft accuses Yukos of share theft. (Russia & CIS).(Brief Article)
July 11, 2003... State-owned Rosneft has filed a suit with Russia's prosecutor's office accusing Yukos of stealing a 19pc stake in oil producer Yeniseineftegaz. The latter owns 22pc of Yeniseineft, licenceholder for the 1bn bl Vankor oil field in east...

Correction.(Correction Notice)
July 11, 2003... In the 27 June edition of FSU Energy, the data for Russia's third-quarter crude export schedule contained a column heading error. The headings should read: "Novorossiysk, Tuapse, Odessa, Germany, Gdansk, Poland, Czech Republic, Slovakia,...

CPC signs Russian crude deal. (Russia & CIS).(Caspian Pipeline Consortium)(Brief Article)
July 11, 2003... The Caspian Pipeline Consortium (CPC) has signed a deal paving the way for the first shipment of Russian crude through its Tengiz-Novorossiysk pipeline. It has agreed with the government of the Kalmykia autonomous republic to link Russia's...

Crude output hits new record. (Russia & CIS).(Brief Article)(Industry Overview)
July 11, 2003... Russia produced 8.35mn b/d of crude and gas condensate in June, according to preliminary figures from the energy ministry. This is 10.9pc more than in June 2002, and 95,000 b/d more than in May. The ministry expects output to hit 8.94mn b/d...

State plans to sell Lukoil stake. (Russia & CIS).(Brief Article)
July 11, 2003... The Russian property ministry has suggested putting the state's 7.6pc stake in Lukoil up for sale next year. The ministry has sent a draft privatisation plan to the government and a decision is expected later this month. Ministry sources say...

Russia to tender Talakan this year. (Russia & CIS).(Brief Article)
July 11, 2003... Russian premier Mikhail Kasyanov says the government plans to reauction the 124mn t Talakan oil field in the Sakha Yakutia autonomous republic of eastern Siberia. Moscow has been promising to carry out the Talakan auction since 2001, but the...

Sakhalin crude heads for western US. (Russia & CIS).(Sakhalin Energy group)(Brief Article)
July 11, 2003... The Shell-led Sakhalin Energy group, which produces crude off Russia's far east, has sold its first cargo to the US west coast. A 700,000 bl cargo of Vityaz crude sailed for Tesoro's 108,000 b/d Anacortes plant in Washington state on 3 July....

Canargo signs PSA in Georgia. (Caspian/central Asia).(CanArgo Energy Corp. production-sharing agreement)(Brief Article)
July 11, 2003... UK-based Canargo has signed a production-sharing agreement (PSA) covering oil and gas blocks in eastern Georgia. The country's national oil and gas agency chose Canargo to explore the blocks--11G and 11H--in November (FSUE, 29 November, p13)....

BP starts work on Azeri link. (Caspian/central Asia).(British Petroleum Company PLC pipeline started)(Brief Article)
July 11, 2003... The BP-led AIOC group has started building a 186km pipeline to link its offshore Azeri field with the onshore Sangachal oil terminal, 45km south of Baku. US services firm McDermott is building the 30 inch (76cm) line as part of wider...

Poland hints at Gdansk shake up. (Central/eastern Europe).(Brief Article)
July 11, 2003... Polish economy minister Jerzy Hausner says the government is planning to merge the 90,000 b/d Gdansk refinery with three smaller plants in the south. The new firm would be called Grupa Lotos and would involve merging Gdansk with the...